Ponding On A Flat Roof B.U.R. At Crickett

Rio

We are working on a project for our church. The roof is a flat Built Up Roof, or B.U.R. and along the cricketts (there are two of them) water is ponding because the cricketts should have been larger. We are concerned about the ponding water making its way through the layers of the B.U.R. and leaking and are looking for a way to seal the cricketts so if water stands there it won't leak.

We have been doing some research and have come up with a couple of different products. One is called ArmorRoof is is supposed to be a liquid rubber roof coating that will stick to anything and is waterproof. The other is
by a company called Ames Research Laboratories and is called Super Elasto-Barrier.

Does anyone have any experience with these two products and/or does anyone have any suggestions on how to deal with this unfortunate situation? Thanks in advance for any answers,
Rio

2ndGen

Never worked with those products, but I'd suggest having the Crickets modified to have water pitch away from them.

Without rebuilding them from scratch, use them as a foundation for a new structure and then resurface that structure with the same material (or better) than the field of the roof.

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MALCO.New.York

Is there "Slime" or algae in the ponds?? If not, evaporation is doing its job well. What is the Manufactures "Spec" concerning ponding?

Minimal ponding is a normal occurrence on flat roofs.

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Slyfox

If it rains Monday and you go on the roof Wednesday and the water is gone you have nothing to worry about other than regular maintenance.

If you go up there Wednesday, Thursday and Friday and find the water still setting there each of those days than something doe's need done.

I have coated areas with setting water before with success but that is not a solution to the problem, it's a long term repair, meaning even those coatings will give out under setting water eventually.

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Rio

Thanks for the observations and advice everyone. I would like to redo the crickets but at this time it's not feasible. We are going to look at one of the products that I listed above after talking to the owner of the plant where it's made and I'll post how things go on it.

The ironic thing is I've been praying for rain to end this drought we've been in and the old saying is now coming back to haunt me, "Be careful of what you wish for"!

jkfox624

Haha i was kind of thinking that, do you even get enough rain in san diego to get ponding?

Rio

Well, it's been 150 days since it rained so maybe I am worrying too much! Actually, when the conditions are right it can really come down and if we get one of the el nino years we can get a tremendous amount of rain. Back around 12 or 15 years ago we had rain for 15 days straight. The place I was living in then sprung leaks everywhere after about 3 days and it just got worse and worse as the rain continued. We had a steady wind from the south blowing about 20 to 25 miles an hour and it just kept coming down, almost as much horizontally as vertically.

At that time I was in a class with an engineer who built concrete houses and he said that after the 10th day the whole inside of the south face of a 12" thick concrete shell started leaking water; they had never sealed it thinking that there was no way there would be a long enough rain event to penetrate the shell.

What was interesting for me in that event was I was doing volunteer work in Tijuana in conjunction with an architectural university and a church and we went through one of the barrios (neighborhoods) by the church after the storm stopped. This was an area where people had just come and settled. There was no civil engineering of any type and it's all hills and canyons. It was (and is) all dirt roads and what the rain did to those roads, the hills and the community was awe inspiring. You could swallow a f-350 crew cab no problem in some of the ruts. Every time I go down there I thank my ancestors and God for the privilege of living up here in the states...................

Grumpy

I have no experience with either of those products but my suggestion is to hire a roofer to build up the cricket(s). Optionally you can coat the areas but the water will beat up the coating, unless it is pond resistant. It'll have to be urethane based, which is more expensive than the average coating that is acrylic and water based. Most coating based product fail due to improper installation or using the wrong products. Most definetly you need a water resistant product, again like urethane, but also will most definetly require multiple coats. Keep in mind you don't just paint it on, or it'l be too thin. YOu have to typically pour or spray it on and work it around. The products I am familiar with would typically require 3 gallons per 100 square feet, built up in 2 passes of about 1.5 gallons per pass.

buildpinnacle

General rule of thumb in our environmental conditions is about 3/4". If the water doesn't come up over your boot heel it will be gone in 3 days with appropriate subsequent conditions. Not cowboy boot heels......work boot heels. Not everyone from Texas wears cowboy boots.

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